THE BUZZ: Now in its second full year as a high-profile peripheral, the Microsoft Kinect is starting to see its fair share of “traditional” games that break with the device’s party-gaming profile. 505 Games’ is doing its best to blend the active aspects of the Kinect with the FPS market in their upcoming action title, Blackwater.

EGM editors had the opportunity to speak with Zombie Studios’ lead designer Richard Dormer for the next edition of EGMi: The Digital Magazine on how working hand-in-hand with Blackwater Worldwide co-founder Erik Prince helped add a level of realism and playability to the title.

According to Dormer, the game has undergone some serious changes since its inception:

“Blackwater has experience with being in real-life, high pressure and intense situations and they felt the Kinect was a great new way of bringing that intensity to the gaming community,” explains Dormer. “Initially the game started out with very accurate and precise moves but as development and testing progressed we found that we needed to use simpler moves so that the game was easily played and understood.”

He goes on to say that, despite their rough-and-tumble origins, Prince and the crew at Blackwater showed a surprising amount of understanding about what it takes to translate their jobs into an enjoyable interactive experience:

“Blackwater understands that this is Blackwater ‘the Game,’ not Blackwater ‘the Simulator’” If this was a simulation, real Blackwater operators would steer clear of most of the scenarios we’ve designed for the player. That would make for a really boring game.” claims Dormer.

EGM’S TAKE: Zombie and 505 face an interesting uphill battle attempting to do something different on Kinect, but thanks to games like SEGA’s Rise of Nightmares opening our eyes to the potential of the Kinect, we’re definitely stoked to see how this intriguing partnership with Blackwater Worldwide translates onto the 360.

Check out the full interview in EGMi: The Digital Magazine tomorrowto read more about the challenges in bringing Blackwater to Kinect!

Brandon Justice spent the last 17 years in the game industry wearing hats as an annoying retail weasel, an overly opinionated journalist, and game-development ninja—until he got tired of the all the caviar and groupies, returning to the ring as a rowdy, rambling writer in 2010 for EGM Media. Follow him on Twitter @jokeontheworld. Meet the rest of the crew.